A two year goes out to lunch at a restaurant with his mom, grandmother and aunt. |
My mother, sister and I started meeting for lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant after both my sister and I had moved out and were living our own lives. My sister got pregnant soon after and had a charming baby boy named Cisco. When Cisco started eating the same food as the adults did, and he was old enough to take out, my sister brought him to have lunch with me and our mother. He was raised in a âfoodieâ family of foodies and always was a good eater. We met at my sisterâs house and went to the restaurant together in my car. La Posada was a small cafĂ© type restaurant with windows all around the front with booths next to them and some smaller tables in the middle. We always had enough people to sit at a booth by a window. I had my first brand new car and I liked to sit where I could keep an eye on it, not that it was so valuable anyone would mess with it. The waitress seated us and brought a high chair for Cisco, he was probably somewhere between two and three and had a pretty good vocabulary. We had never spoken baby talk to him and being my sisterâs first child, my motherâs first grandchild and my first nephew he had received a lot of attention and we all spent a lot of time reading to him and doing things with him. âWhat are you going to have? Should we spring for some guacamole since we havenât done this for a while?â I asked. âSure. That sounds good and will give us more time to decide what to order.â Mom replied. âHave you decided what you want?â The cute little waitress asked us. âNot entirely but will you bring us three Dos Equis, a small orange juice and an order of guacamole while we decide.â My sister answered her. What I really liked about this restaurant is that it had lots of a la carte type dishes you could mix and match and you never had to order too much food like was the custom at many of the Mexican restaurants offered. I usually would get a cup of spicy âtomatos con chilies y arrozâ soup, a chicken taco and Mexican rice. It was all I needed and I didnât have any leftovers. Cisco had only been taken out to breakfast once or twice before this so he was having a good time. He was a very gregarious child and had a sunny disposition, he is still my favorite nephew thirty years later, but donât tell his two brothers that. When the guacamole and drinks arrived Cisco was given his own little plate with chips, salsa and guacamole. He started eating and looking around the restaurant at the people sitting at the tables near us. âHello.â He announced as he looked at the people right next to us. They didnât say anything. âHi!â He said a little louder and still they ignored him. He didnât like being ignored by strangers, he was used to being the center of attention and everyone loved him. What was these peopleâs problem? âCisco. Do you like the chips?â I asked trying to distract him. He didnât answer me. He just looked around the room at the various people. âFuck.â He said very matter of fact, it was actually pretty funny but of course I dared not laugh. Our mother had taught us that it was better to ignore things like this so thatâs what we tried to do. âF***!â This time a little louder, but not much, he wanted to be paid attention to. âShssh Cisco. Eat the chips.â My sister told him. Oh no that wouldnât do. âF***. F***. F***.â Still in a calm tone of voice but he was determined to get a reaction. My sister and I were trying not to look at each other because we were giggling. Our mother didnât help because she really laughed. That was all she wrote. âF***. F***. F***.â Again and since discipline was not something any of us were any good at my sister took Cisco out to the car and put him in the front seat where he could see the three of us in the restaurant and locked the car door and came back inside. âI donât know what else to do.â She said and then we looked at Cisco who had a crestfallen expression on his face. We waited until the food came and my sister went out and brought Cisco back in. Cisco immediately started eating his food. He got the hint that if he didnât behave himself he wouldnât get to sit with us. There are many times through the years when I see parents hit their children for things like this I think back on this incident where we actually outsmarted the child. |